1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to computer storage media systems and methods and more particularly to such systems and methods employing removable media devices.
2. Description of Related Art
Computer storage media devices such as floppy disks, hard disk drives, removable hard disks, compact disks (CD), digital versatile disks (DVD), tape drives, smart cards, and PCMCIA cards are employed in many computer systems. Security of these types of storage media typically involves only manual processes. Usually, several individuals in an office have access to a secure storage area where media are checked in and out. The disadvantages of such a system are many. By using only manual devices, it is very cumbersome to track a list of borrowers of media devices from a storage area. Full scale accounting of monitored items is extremely slow. It is even more onerous to account for the duration of time that individuals had these media in their possession. The combination of slow accounting of information and high speed copying and transmission of computer information allows miscreants to copy or steal the information on the storage devices and then replace the computer information storage devices in the storage rooms. The periodic nature of current record keeping systems allows miscreants to tamper with the storage devices. A manual system often does not accurately inventory nor track computer media and the accountability of media users.
Security problems can be traced to the tremendous progress made in the capacity of storage media and devices, and the information transfer rates. Early floppy disks and tape drives of the nineteen seventies were capable of storing several hundred kilobytes of information while the floppy disks of the nineteen nineties have capacities of the order of 1.4 megabytes. Current Zip drives store several hundred megabytes of information while they measure about 3.5 inches by 4 inches and are a quarter inch thick, and certain thinly dimensioned drives and carry several gigabytes of information. A decade ago only a very select group of users had access to write-capable CD-ROM drives, however most current computer systems now have capabilities to write CD-ROMs. Recent developments have provided new recording technology that could push the maximum data capacity of a single hard disk drive platter to 200 GB.
With such advancements, almost any computer user can copy nearly a terabyte of information; it can be done in less than ten seconds. In a terabyte of information, an organization can lose all its password files, a whole set of drawings for critical weapon systems, complete specification manuals, and so on. The trend in storage technology is towards greater capacities, smaller sizes, and faster speeds of transfer of information. Credit card size storage devices (smart cards) with megabytes of information capacity pose a real threat to information security.
Information resources further face virus attacks and other threats. Protection of information resources is crucial to national security and U.S. critical infrastructure protection groups are addressing these issues very seriously. This problem is the reverse of information stealing. As workers borrow data storage devices from an organization and use them on other computer systems and in the process introduce viruses and applets on to the data storage devices, which are in turn, transmitted to host computers upon return to the organization. Once introduced, applets, software agents, and other computer programs can cause an organization's critical computer information to be transmitted via a network without a user's knowledge. Compared to fixed data storage devices (hard disk drives), removable data storage devices allow users to transfer information (data and programs) from one computer to another in one organization and from one computer to another in different organizations. Organizations do not want unauthorized information introduced inadvertently, deliberately, or maliciously into their systems.
Certain media storage containers available today offer barcode recognition of interchanged drives and magazines. As an example, The Kodak Digital Science CD/DVD Library is a CD jukebox designed for high-volume information storage, retrieval, archiving, and backup applications. The CD/DVD library can give one access to a total of 162 CDs or DVDs, providing a maximum storage capacity of 421 gigabytes of data. An average disc exchange time of about four seconds helps assure that information is available immediately when users request it. The arrangement is a front-loading mailbox with password security key-lock and software-interlock front door access to drive and magazine bay support for “hot-swaps” of magazines. The library device has bar code recognition of interchanged drives.
Systems such as these have several disadvantages: 1) they are always on line, 2) they do not record who accessed which device, and 3) they do not record what (copy, modify, delete) users did with those files or information. Additionally, paper barcodes suffer from the disadvantage that it is relatively easy for miscreants and adversaries to forge them. Many large storage systems have been developed in response to the explosive growth in network storage capacity requirements. They are attractive for adding storage quickly and economically. Despite their advantages, these online information storage devices are not detached storage devices, which are a requirement in the case of highly valuable and national security critical information. With lap top computers, PDAs, and other portable computing devices becoming smaller in size and more capable in memory size, theft of critical information from organizations is a real possibility. Techniques and methods are needed to safeguard information of an organization by using such portable devices as physical conveyors of computer information.
Personal computers purchased by the Defense Department since 1994 have been equipped with PCMCIA card slots, as part of a secure Defense Message System. The cards, which can hold 170 megabytes of information, can fit into a shirt pocket, so a job begun at one workstation might be continued at another location on a different computer. While this feature is an advantage for genuine workers, it is also a feature welcomed by thieves, malicious users, and agents of adversaries.